Bicycle the Main
The day’s objective is to travel from Wertheim to Freudenberg by bicycle, and then set sail all night and the next day.
The day began with a slightly different challenge.
First thing in the morning, Kevin checked his phone to discover a text message from the CITI credit card company. The first thought that went through Kevin and Theresa’s mind was that the text was a scam and there was no way we elected to click on the embedded link. Something in the back of Kevin’s mind said to find a way to validate the text so he logged on directly to the secured Web site for CITI. There he discovered several suspicious purchases all conducted on their anniversary. The first was a phone order to some web site for 85 cents. This was the trigger by the fraudulent user to confirm the credit card was a viable target. That was rapidly followed by two airline tickets on Delta and two additional charges to yet another merchant not recognized by Kevin. The rest of the morning was consumed by disputing all charges that had taken place on Kevin’s card. Oddly enough Theresa was the one using her CITI card for restaurants and purchases while out of the US. Kevin was confused on why his card was the target. After a great deal of retracing Kevin’s potential use of his card it came to him that the Hotel in Prague had taken the card information for any potential charges not included as part of the Viking package. As he replayed the events in Prague, he remembered that upon check out the desk attended claimed “the computers are down, I can email you a receipt once they are back on line”. Kevin knew there should have been no extra charges and accepted that response. To this date there has been no email of a receipt from the hotel.
For the ride, multiple layers were donned as well as gloves and extra layers that could be utilized as needed. Of the 120 passenger of the Viking ship 6 were brave enough to complete the 16 mile bicycle ride along the Main River. The riders left the ship to inspect and choose the sturdy stead that would help carry them to the destination. The bicycles were the ones from Wizard of Oz. Imagine the same bike ridden by the wicked witch as she rode the bike in the Tornado. Girls style with no cross bar, a basket on the back and yes a bell.
The ride followed the river on a paved bike path for 16 miles with the fist few miles winding through the town and dumping the group onto a path that was flat but surrounded by cliffs on each side of the river.
Early in the ride Kevin heard Theresa’s high-pitched screech as she had to stop due to a shoelace getting caught in the chain, a rookie mistake.
At one point the riders had to get off their bikes and walk along the railroad trestle. Just as they made it to the other side one of the many commuter trains went whizzing by. As the miles slowly melted by, the Viking Baldur was seen in the distance as it was maneuvering through a lock.
The group was able to leapfrog the boat as the passengers waved to the cyclists and the cyclists waved back. Kevin hailed the Captain and in response he sounded the ships horn.
The group of cyclists stopped again at the halfway point and waited for the vessel to pass the group, again with both parties waving at each other. Kevin asked one of the vessel’s guests to through him a beer.
With only a few miles left the team of cyclists were guided to a Beer Garden.
Just outside the beer garden, Kevin took a picture of a charging station for E bikes that was along the path and the charging station is free.
After local beer, the group saddled up again and finished the last 4 miles. The sun was setting so the cyclist elected to apply additional layers of clothing.
In these last miles was the largest hill of the ride which basically rose from water level up to the top of the lock. On this climb Theresa went from third gear to second gear to first gear to no momentum to performing in Artie Johnson maneuver.
Finally the ship was insight the cyclist now just had to navigate getting from the bike path onto a very busy street, over a bridge to the other side of the river. To then get off the busy street, over a curb, and down a steep hill.
Theresa once again demonstrated her bicycle handling skills as she tried to swing her leg up and over and around the seat hitting the basket on the back of the bike and yes in the middle of traffic fell. These were bicycles with no top tube so that maneuver was not necessary. They were designed to simply slide forward off the seat and put at least one foot down off the pedals. Once back on the boat Theresa was able to attend to her multiple bruises.
The dinner theme for the night was a German feast. Some of the staff even dressed in the traditional attire as the served up local dishes.
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